Cast yourself (you are the spell)

Chapter 50

"I'm tired."

Hope rolls her eyes. "You're tired? I've climbed fourteen flights of stairs in the past half hour."

"That's not fair. I don't do sports like you do," Josie whines, the soft pads of her socks thudding dully against the floor. Hope continues to pull her along by her hand as they finally reach the seventh floor.

Underneath her breath, the brunette mutters, "Why does a school even need to have seven stories, anyway?"

Hope pretends not to hear her.

"Why aren't you wearing shoes?" she asks, instead.

"I couldn't find my heels," Josie says.

"So you decided not to wear anything at all?"

"I'm wearing socks."

"With..." Hope pauses, stealing another glance at Josie's socks. "...Purple cats on them?"

"I didn't have time to change," the brunette tells her, simply. She even lifts her shoulders in a shrug. "And I didn't want to be late to meet with you."

Aww. How sweet.

"Obviously," Josie adds, voice lowered and tone a little snarky, "you didn't feel the need to share the same courtesy with me."

"I already told you," Hope huffs out, trying hard not to pant. She's a bit winded from all this walking. "I was climbing fourteen flights of stairs."

"What a convenient excuse."

Hope stops walking so suddenly that Josie bumps into her back. She stumbles around and almost slips, before the pureblood catches her around the waist.

She lets out a deep sigh and rolls her shoulders. Josie tries to pretend she hadn't just tripped over air. "Do you want me to teach you how to dance or not?"

Josie's lips down-turn into a deep pout, and she starts to look everywhere but Hope like some petulant child. Hope watches her and stays silent for a long moment, before intertwining their fingers again and starting toward the corridor she had found the ball room in.

"Okay, then." She smirks, just a little. "We're almost there."

Her smirk falls a second later.

"Aye, aye, Captain—"

Hope stops walking again.

She asks the same question.

Josie pouts once more.

She makes another joke and/or complaint.